" In light of Ignatius' 'Two Standards' and 'The Mystries Done From The Garden To The House Of Annas', at any moment we can be Judas or Peter, a Christian life can be a fine line."

Saturday, June 23, 2012

“How Could This Be Happening, He’s A Priest!”

The last incident was not child abuse, because I was no longer a minor, though I was still a teenager of 18 or 19. Several years earlier, my family had worked for the election of our congressman, Father Robert Drinan, an anti-Vietnam War, pro-choice priest. He was in town for a fundraiser or town meeting, and I went. Afterward he offered me a ride to the subway. (You’d think I would have learned.) He was in his 50s, and as he drove we chatted about college. We got to where he was letting me off, he turned off the engine, and he began jabbering incoherently about men and women.

Then he lunged, shoving his tongue in my mouth while running his hands over my breasts and up and down my torso. It seems like the set-up for a joke, a Jewish woman being molested by a Jesuit. As we tussled, I had probably the most naïve thought of my life: “How could this be happening, he’s a priest!” As I shoved him off and opened the car door to get out,

I saw I had left a smear of my pink lipstick on his clerical collar. Again, I told no one. It was embarrassing, revolting, and I had no desire to make accusations against a congressman, especially one I admired.

25 comments:

"Our Catholic understanding of the pro-life movement sees what the unbelieving world in which we live cannot comprehend. The sixth and ninth commandments of God are intimately and necessarily related to the fifth commandment. The sixth commandment forbids the use of one's body for sexual pleasure outside the sanctity of marriage. The ninth commandment forbids the indulgence of venereal thoughts, desires and emotions deliberately aroused or deliberately enjoyed outside the hallowed precincts of matrimony. It is not, as some are telling us, that because the Church considers the bodily pleasure sinful, she forbids "sexual activity" outside of marriage. No, it is because marriage is so holy. The history of the human race shows that there is an inevitable relationship between the sixth and ninth commandments, and the fifth, "Thou shalt not kill."

The devil lies in order to kill. He deceives the human mind in order to pervert the human will.Pope John Paul II published two historic encyclicals which might be called two commentaries on how to cope with the devil as the prince of this world. On the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1993, he published The Splendor of the Truth; on the Feast of the Annunciation in 1995, he published The Gospel of Life.In the two documents, the Vicar of Christ left no doubt who is most hostile to the truth and who is the arch-enemy of human life. It is Satan.

This is how the Bishop of Rome explains it:

God proclaims that He is absolute Lord of the life of man, who is formed in His image and likeness. Human life is thus given a sacred and inviolable character which reflects the inviolability of the Creator Himself. Precisely for this reason God will severely judge every violation of the commandment “You shall not kill,” the commandment which is at the basis of all life together in society. He is then Goel, the defender of the innocent. God thus shows that He does not delight in the death of the living. Only Satan can delight therein for through his envy death entered into the world. He is “a murderer from the beginning.” He is also “a liar and the father of lies.” By deceiving man, he leads into projects of sin and death, making them appear as goals and fruits of life (Gospel of Life, 53)."

Fr. Drinan was the main public proponent of Liberation Theology, which he cross pollinated with the Democratic Party. This false idea which he tried to turn into some Christo/Marxist Theocracy. Fr. Drinan publicly advocated the acceptance of abortion and contraception. This repugnant insight into his personal rejection of his Jesuit and priestly vows of celibacy reflects the true light and nature of Liberation Theology.

It is not I but rather the Jesuits and their confreres at at America Magazine who cast the negative pall, my friend, on Christ Jesus, the Church He founded and on every reader that has the sorry misfortune of wandering into their ambit.

Take no worries for my soul. It rests every hour of the day in Christ. I would no more look to Fr. Martin for the means to joy than I would look to a bank robber to secure my money.

Okay C40 that's wrong on a number of fronts. For example, Fr. D. wasn't "the main public proponent of Liberation Theology." In any case, do his actions define a movement or approach? If so then Fr. Hardon's criminal behavior means that conservative Catholicism is invalid.

Anonymous @ 1:20 AM--There were large crowds at the Coliseum when Christians were being fed to hungry lions.

You indicate that I "seem pretty obsessed with him." Understand that Fr. Martin holds court in multiple national platforms which he mercilessly employs to scandalizes the faithful. As such, his message holds a particularly critical and virulent sway. He reaches and influences large numbers. As I always like to say, it is not for nothing that Fr. Martin was made "culture editor". All faithful Catholics should be concerned. I would encourage you to read Christefideles Laici wherein JPII reminds us that we the laity, we too, are called.

"And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too'" (Mt 20:3-4)… "Go and preach the Gospel" always maintains its vital value and its ever-pressing obligation. Nevertheless, the present situation, not only of the world but also of many parts of the Church, absolutely demands that the word of Christ receive a more ready and generous obedience. Every disciple is personally called by name; no disciple can withhold making a response: "Woe to me, if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Cor 9:16).

That means me and you.

Lastly, Fr. Martin confirms people in their sin. Large crowds? We should not be surprised. His message? Mortal sin? No problem. God loves you. Go and sin some more. Fr. Martin would do well to remember with Isaiah:

"Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter."

Those who subscribe to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church are neither, contrary to your feeble assertions, diseased or Talibanistic. My brand of Catholicism? That argument would presuppose that I have invented my own Gospel. Such is not the case.

Some good advice:

"Time was when you could look at the cover of a book and read the book with security that you were getting the truth. But in case you have not heard, no more. I am speaking of religious truth and specifically of revealed truth. Too many once trustworthy sources of religious truth have either become dried up or so polluted that sometimes it makes a Catholic feel like the Greek Diogenes who went in search of an honest man with a lamp and he would cry out if he found one, "Eureka!"

Let me suggest three simple norms for discovering religious truth in today's miasma of very sophisticated and very learned confusion. Ask yourself three questions:

*Question one: does what I am hearing or reading correspond to what the Church has always held to be true?

*Second question: does what I am hearing or reading conform to the present teaching of the Roman Catholic Church as expressed by the Vicar of Christ?

*Third question: what kind of a person morally, is the one who is teaching or writing what I hear or read?

We did not used to have to ask these questions. We do now.

A good checklist of the procreative power of truth, and the corresponding power of falsehood to beget evil, is given by St. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians. His study in contrast between the progeny of error and truth is worth quoting in full. What is the offspring of error?

It is "fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility, idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealously, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things." What is the offspring of truth? It is the very opposite: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, truthfulness, gentleness and self-control." Here we have a divinely revealed, and easily applied rule for discernment of spirits. If the untruth is active, the moral effects of false ideas are invariably bad. If the Spirit of truth is at work, the moral results are correspondingly, and infallibly, good".

Your Catholicism is not my Catholicism. Yours is narrow, legalistic, top-down, bureaucratic; it does not honor the place of everyone in the Church (indeed, your sense of what constitutes "the Church" is limited). Your Catholicism has forgotten the Sermon on the Mount.

CATHOLICISM. The faith, ritual, and morals of the Roman Catholic Church as a historical reality, revealed in Jesus Christ and destined to endure until the end of time. It comprehends all that the Church teaches must be believed and lived out in order to be saved and, beyond salvation, in order to be sanctified. This system of doctrine, cultus, and practice is called Catholic (universal) because it is intended for all mankind, for all time, contains all that is necessary, and is suitable in every circumstance of human life.Modern Catholic Dictionary

There is no "my Catholicism" or "your Catholicism". There is only the one true, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, that Christ founded. To be sure, it is "top down", as you say. It is the way Christ desinged His Church. There is a magisterium. There is eternal truth, however much some may rebel. His Church honors every man, woman and child. Catholicism is inextricably bound to the Sermon on the Mount. God's love is never divorced from His justice. They are inextricbly bound, one to another, though there are many who have been deluded into believing it is otherwise.

"Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, in his masterful encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, Rich in Mercy, defines mercy as love coping with evil. Memorize that, mercy is love coping with evil. Mercy is love, paid the price of love. Mercy is costly love. It is love that loves although it has not been loved. Mercy is love giving to those who have stolen love from us. All of this we believe.

On the first level of our consideration is how God wants us to cooperate with His providence whenever we are the unwilling and innocent victims of other people’s sins. But people may still be causing us pain, maybe for years, they not only were but they are now offending God and at least because we hear or read about their sinful conduct they offend us. What does God expect of us? He expects us to pray and sacrifice for these people so they might stop offending Him and depending on the gravity of their sin, might be converted and be reconciled with their God. It is impossible to exaggerate the practical importance of this reading of divine providence. God wants every sinner to repent and return to His friendship. He wants every priest who has rejected his priesthood and turned his back on Christ to be reconciled with his Master. He wants every religious who has been unfaithful to his or her vowed commitment to make their peace with God. He wants every husband who has sinned against his wife and children to repent and be saved. He wants every woman who has killed her unborn offspring to be converted. Every prostitute to reach heaven. Every thief and murderer to one day see the face of God. He wants the Church’s persecutors, wherever, and in our own country to love the God they are now opposing among the faithful. In a word, God wants sinners to return to the One they offended and finally to save their souls. But all of this means that we must do our part, we must pray and sacrifice in order to obtain from God’s mercy the grace that sinners need, desperately need, to stop sinning and start serving God. They will, they will stop offending God, but I repeat, we must do our part. The more patient we are in bearing the wrongs of others, the more forgiving we are, the more ready we are to pay the price of being maybe deeply agonizingly hurt by a sinner, the more grace God has in store for that sinner. My generosity, my patience in bearing wrong is the divinely ordained condition for obtaining God’s merciful forgiveness even for the worst crimes that people will commit. It is up to us to never count the cost in order to obtain the mercy of God for those who have sinned. And the more deeply we have been hurt, the more agonizingly we have suffered injustice, hear it and don’t forget, the more we hold that sinner’s salvation in our hands. Our patient endurance of suffering is the price that Jesus wants us to pay to bring sinners to that heavenly kingdom reserved only for those who have tasted the mercy of God."

God wants every sinner to repent and return to His friendship. He wants every priest who has rejected his priesthood and turned his back on Christ to be reconciled with his Master. He wants every religious who has been unfaithful to his or her vowed commitment to make their peace with God...He wants the Church’s persecutors, wherever, and in our own country to love the God they are now opposing among the faithful. In a word, God wants sinners to return to the One they offended and finally to save their souls

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.